Q12543 wrote:longstrangetrip wrote:For those who want to malign Flip's bringing in "over-the-hill" vets like KG, Miller and Prince, here are their WS/48 for last season:
KG: .096
Prince: .086
Miller: .084
Only Muhammad and Dieng had better numbers on the Wolves roster. Wiggins was only .034 and Rubio was .033.
Veterans know what they need to do to win, and it can only help our young talent to have these three guys around to teach them.
LST, two things....First, WS/48 contains a team defensive component that gets allocated out to individual players. So if you play on a really poor defensive team, you might be disproportionately hurt by the WS/48 metric. On the other hand, if you play for a really good defensive team, your WS/48 benefits.
The second thing is that .100 is considered about league average, which none of them achieved. None of these guys are very efficient scorers anymore and KG is the only one that can still defend at a high level. And now they are all a year older. I just don't see them moving the needle much in terms of projected wins/losses for this upcoming season.
Yes, I understand that the stat contains an allocated team defensive component, and I would argue that actually understates last year's contribution by these three veterans because all three played a lot of games with very bad defensive teams...30 games with Sacramento, 23 with Detroit, 42 with Brooklyn). Yes, there were some games with Memphis in there too, but overall I would say these were hurt more than helped by their teammates.
I agree that none of the three can be considered an efficient scorer, but on the other hand, all three shot substantially more efficiently than Andrew Wiggins...arguably our best player last year. And I don't see much evidence that Prince's defense has declined much...his defensive rating last year was identical to his career average. Experience counts for a lot in defense, and that often helps veterans make up for their declining athleticism. Miller has never been considered a good defender, but his career plus/minus numbers are excellent, and I don't think he will be a lead destroyer like our back up PGs have been for several seasons.
We're not counting on any of these three to be stars, so the fact that they were all slightly below the league average in WS/48 (albeit while playing mostly for losing teams) doesn't concern me much. Rather, we are counting on them to contribute in limited roles. KG will start and play roughly 20 minutes, and lead by example every second he is on the court. Miller will be called upon to steady our second unit for 10-15 minutes a game, something that has been sorely needed for a long time. And I don't expect Prince to play much unless we experience significant wing injuries again...and if Flip needs to call on him in a back up SF
role, he knows he will be reliable.
I don't diminish the mentorship narrative like so many do here. I know mentors were very important in my career, and I think they are perhaps even more important in a player's early NBA years. Young players certainly all talk about it a lot, so it has to mean something. I don't think the importance of having three guys who have had a great deal of success in the NBA on the roster can be overemphasized.
